Personally, I depend on the RTB, No Silence Here and Nashville Is Talking like an addict hits the meth. I get tons of news and information and I also get readers here from all three sites, which makes this blogging all the better - I don't want to be completely like Steve Martin said - "I don't need YOU! I can do this act ALONE! I often DO!"

One of the best things about Tennessee is we loves to talk about everything, and our state is a crucible for all the hottest topics in politics and lifestyles and much more. We're at the very center of the national debate on any topic you can name. And from the Civil Rights Museum in the west, to the legislative heart in Nashville, to the start of all American music in Bristol - we provide presidents and vice presidents and you can't get much of anywhere at all without going thru here.

I live just off the one highway named for the one and only person to have ever served in every non-judicial elected position in American politics, even defeating impeachment and then returning to the Senate. The state has as many conflicting opinions as people and we do talk a heap about it.I know the Insty-Boy gets loads of press, and I confess his is the one blog I never read. I did a few times and just found it not to my tastes.

And Brittney and the staff at WKRN have opened up their news coverage to video bloggers and I hope more TV and radio stations do likewise. As I've told Brittney, being a guest blogger there just rocks.

One major complaint in the blog world of TN I do have is that damn few residents and non-bloggers from Hamblen and points east seldom if ever bother to comment on local events and topics. I know they lurk and read, but even then their numbers seem small. I often think the surrounding counties do not have enough easily accessible internet connections, but that is changing -- I hope, anyway.

And when I do read through other writers pages in other states, Tennessee has the most easily readable and aggregated collections. Other states don't come close -- yet. But that is changing too as the other states model themselves on us. And again personally, I receive about equal amounts of readers from Europe and Asia as I do from the U.S.

As odd as it sounds, I find much unity in the state through all the wide range of opinions and also just the relation of day to day events that so many people share. We are home to some fantastic writers and without the South, and Tennessee, the American Voice would just be bi-coastal extremes.

Having been a resident of both middle and east (and I depend on Newscoma and some others to keep me up to speed on the west as well as her posts on events and topics nationally) I can testify there are major differences and similarities. There's only two things I've never seen in Tennessee - the ocean or an iceberg, though geology suggests we've had those too.

And just for the record, most of us in the east are in the Valley, not the Mountains - and trust me, no one really wants to get them folk riled up.

Where is the Blogging Capital in Tennessee? You tell me.

UPDATE: KnoxViews weighs in with some numbers on the blog question. And Les Jones remarks on the Time Zone quotient - er, Les was that a pic of The Hoff in a Hoff Speedo??

The state's Democrat Party has taken notice of both the RTB and KnoxViews in their latest emailing - though let's be honest, the GOP is a major force in state politics. Again that underscores what I said above - we are in the forefront of national debates on politics.

Truth be told, after some months reading blogs, it was South Knox Bubba who first prompted me to actually leave a comment, and the bug bit deep enough to create this constantly brewing Cup of Joe.

And while I may not read the InstyBoy, I utterly appreciate that he helped arrange for a sneak preview screening to Joss Whedon's "Serenity" which was worth gold to me.

I honestly don't know, but, despite my efforts to the contrary, I can definitively say that it's NOT Chattanooga.

Things can and do change, however. Chattanooga and its surrounding area are technically in the Eastern Division, but everyone knows we're not "East Tennessee." We share geography and more with North Georgia and Northeast Alabama (SW NC too).